How Little Things Can Mean the World When Away from Home

Some comforts are meant to stay at home when you travel. If travel is way of life, you need to learn savvy tricks and know gadgets to make living away from home not only a novelty and a great source of experiences, but a little easier too.

These days, finding practical solutions to travel travails are easier with the bounty of little technologies that you can discover and learn online. Christopher Muther comes forward with five suggestions in the “Little Things That Spice Up Travel” posted in The Boston Globe Travel – Lifestyle Section. His suggestions? Mobile Foodie Survival Kit, Lomography La Sardina 35mm camera, Vinni Bag, Miists Pocket Essentials, and En Route — A Journal by Kate Pocrass.

Mobile Foodie Survival Kit: Have you ever sat down to a swanky meal only to realize that your chicken cooked under a brick is in desperate need of organic granulated garlic?

If you’re a foodie, this Mobile Foodie Survival Kit from Brooklyn, N.Y. is bliss. It comes handy just when what’s served on the plate comes short in flavor. The kit has wee pots of your favorite herbs and spices to enhance your meal – organic basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme, dill, cayenne, curry, cinnamon, granulated garlic, granulated onion, ginger, sea salt, and black pepper. For $26, it is like taking your spice rack wherever you go.

Lomography La Sardina 35mm camera:… have fun playing with the double exposure feature… take a picture, rewind to the same frame, and then take another for ghostly effects.

It’s a cool camera that can easily fit in your purse/bag. It lets you easily do some camera tricks just like the old “35mm”film days. This chic-looking gadget can cost anywhere between $69 and $399.

Vinni Bag:My strategy for bringing wine home while traveling is to wrap it in a sweatshirt, stuff it in the middle of the suitcase and pray to Dionysus that the baggage handlers don’t use my suitcase as a discus.

The Vinni Bag is an inflatable bag that cushions breakables on all sides such as boozes, olive oil, vases, etc. The only downside is it can occupy a bigger space than a rolled sweatshirt. For $28, you can bring home a breakable that’s really hard to part with.

Miists Pocket Essentials: These slim, pocket-sized pouches of everything from insect repellent to hairspray look like single-use, throw-away products, but each contains more than 150 uses.

You need not repack your essentials in small containers. These are already on travel-sized bottles that take up less space in your carry-on bag. Imagine stain remover, sunscreen, artificial sweetener, and mouth spray for a price of $4-$6.

En Route — A Journal by Kate Pocrass: There’s only so many details of your travels that you can share on Facebook before your friends determine that you’re a nine-alarm narcissist.

The journal En-Route, a $12-worth journal is a quirky way to jot down ideas, observations, reminders and whatever you want to recall later.

eReaders: Endless Entertainment is Easy with eReaders – The author recommends Kobo Aura eReader Touch that is lightweight, user-friendly, ultra-portable, with 2GB memory and can store 30,000 books, and has a remarkable battery power. Bose QuietComfort 25 model is recommended with its “super comfy earcup cushions” and “crystal clear vocals.”

Splitter: Make a Split Decision – Share your earphone with a splitter. Try Belkin’s Rockstar headphone splitter. It is an adapter that would fit your tablet or laptop, and has up to five headphone ports.

Neck pillow: Save Your Neck– This is just the right thing to sleep better anywhere. If you haven’t got one yet, buy the Go Travel memory foam neck pillow, which is made of high-density foam that comfortably molds to your neck and head and neck while sitting.

Fan: Fan of Keeping Cool – Heading to the tropic? Be ready for the heat. Take with you a portable fan you can use anytime the heat sizzles. The Go Travel micro pocket fan is so small it wouldn’t take so much space in your luggage so that staying cool is not so much a concern

Portable Charger: I’ve Got the Power – You need a charger when you travel for your gadgets. It is smart to bring something that you can use for all your gizmos. Trythe Powerstation XL from mophie. with12,000mAh capacity.

So, when’s your next travel? Try some of these and discover that your destination will feel homier with little things like these gizmos.

About Us

Barbara Walsh-Kumm and John Kumm have established this website in order to provide the avid visitor with current hints and tips, news and opinions relating in general to travel, and more particularly to overseas trips, vacations and holiday adventures.